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A Guide to Cyber Bullying

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A Guide to Cyber Bullying K_116_081023_ CYBERBULLYING_Cover_Riana v4 dimensions.pdf 30/10/2008 15:20:12 A guide to cyberbullying CYBERBULLYING: GET What it is? WITH How to prevent it? How to cope if it happens? GET IT! Where to turn for help? C M WITH Y CM MY CY CMY K IT! For more Office for Internet Safety Freefone 1800 24 25 95 information Department of Justice E: [email protected] and Equality W: www.internetsafety.ie understanding and identifying Contact: 51 St. Stephen’s Green Dublin 2 cyberbullying to help your protect children All rights rest with the Office for Internet Safety. CONTENTS Page 1. Introduction 2 2. What is Cyberbullying? 4 3. Preventing Cyberbullying 8 4. Key advice for children and young people 12 5. Key advice for parents 14 6. What can I do if I suspect my child is a cyberbully 17 7. When and how to contact the service provider 18 8. Useful websites 23 1 1. Introduction 1.1 Who should read this booklet? This booklet contains information and advice that will be of use to: • Parents of children of school going age or at college, i.e. up to early 20s, • Teachers and leaders of youth groups and sports clubs, as well as • Teenagers and young adults. 1.2 What is the aim of this booklet? This booklet aims to explain cyberbullying. It tells you how and where it happens, gives guidance on how to prevent it and sets out simple steps to be taken if you become the target of messages that annoy, threaten or insult you. 1.3 Social networking, the good and the not-so-good All over the world, people are able to share ideas and information on a scale never seen before. This surge in communications has been made possible by information and communications technology (ICT). We know that, despite its many benefits, the new and expanding ICT is also being used as a new means to carry on ages – old activities such as bullying . 2 1.4 Communicating – technology has changed the rules! When we communicate by ICT, we miss out on certain information that comes from a face to face encounter. In a direct encounter we have more opportunity to interpret the exchanges. We hear what is said but we also hear the tone of voice, we see the facial expressions, we notice the general demeanour. We add all this together to interpret the message. The key message, therefore, is that there are limits to communicating by ICT. In particular, we must be aware that the intended meaning can be lost. Anyone sending a message by ICT must therefore be aware that they risk causing unintended offence by making careless remarks. We should also be aware that messages sent via electronic devices remain and can be reused, whether in the right context or not. Comments can be archived online - not only are they visible but may be searchable, even when they are believed to have been removed. 3 2. What is Cyberbullying? 2.1 Some general points • Cyberbullying occurs when bullying behavior is carried out through the use of ICT systems such as e-mail, mobile phones, instant messaging (IM), social networking websites, apps and other online technologies. • The most important feature of bullying is the intention to annoy, etc. • However, as discussed in the previous section, we can also cause annoyance unintentionally. • Therefore, think before you send a message! • Remember that the same message may be interpreted differently depending on whether it was received as, for example, a text or as an oral message, by post or as a tweet. 2.2 Some more specific points • Bullying is conduct that is aggressive, threatening or intimidating and that is, generally, repeated. • It may be conducted by verbal, psychological or physical means by an individual or group against one or more persons. • Bullying is always wrong and is unacceptable behaviour. It should never be overlooked or ignored. • Cyberbullying refers to bullying which is carried out using the internet, mobile phone or other technological devices. • Cyberbullying generally takes a psychological rather than physical form but is often part of a wider pattern of ‘traditional’ bullying. • It can take the form of sending nasty, mean or threatening messages, emails, photos or video clips; silent phone calls; 4 putting up nasty posts or pictures; saying hurtful things; pretending to be someone else or accessing someone’s accounts to make trouble for them. 2.3 Must the bullying be prolonged or continuous? Bullying is more likely to be behaviour that is sustained or repeated over time and which has a serious negative effect on the well-being of the victim and it is generally a deliberate series of actions. Once- off posting of nasty comments on someone’s profile or uploading photographs intended to embarrass someone is not very nice but it may not, by itself, be bullying. However, a one-off electronic message is very different to a hand-written message. The big difference between writing nasty messages on the back of a school book and posting it on the internet is that the online messages can potentially be seen by a very wide audience almost instantly. And, as already noted, the message can remain available on the internet even if it is later removed from the site where it was first posted. In other words, the online message, even if intended to be one-off, can become, in effect, permanent. 2.4 Additional comments on online behaviour, etc How we use ICT • Many people tend not to feel as responsible for their online actions as they do in ‘real life’, for example, a more informal style is often used when posting messages on the internet, but ‘informal’ must not become ‘careless’. • When they are online, users can hide behind the anonymity that the internet can provide. • There is also a tendency, especially between young people, to hide their messages from adults, even when there is nothing abusive, insulting, etc. 5 The online bully and the victim • In most cases, cyberbullies know their targets, but their victims don’t always know the person bullying them. This can prove very isolating for the victim in group, club or school settings where they come to distrust all their peers. • Cyberbullying can happen any time and any place and, parents should be aware that for many children, home is no longer a safe haven from bullying. How young victims might react to cyberbullying • Young people are often fearful of telling others about being bullied because they fear that the bullying may actually become worse if they tell. • They are often also afraid to report incidents, as they fear that adults will take away their mobile phone or other device and/ or their internet access. • As a result they can feel isolated, they do not know who to trust, their judgment, self-image and confidence can all be damaged. 2.5 Different forms of Cyberbullying • PERSONAL INTIMIDATION – This behaviour includes sending threatening text (SMS) messages, posting abusive and threatening comments on the victim’s profile or other websites, or sending threatening messages via instant messaging (IM). • IMPERSONATION – This behaviour involves setting up fake profiles and web pages that are attributed to the victim. It can also involve gaining access to someone’s profile or instant messaging account and using it to contact others and subsequently bully them while impersonating the account or profile owner. • EXCLUSION – This behaviour involves blocking an individual from a popular group or community online. 6 • PERSONAL HUMILIATION – This behaviour involves posting images or videos intended to embarrass or humiliate someone, it can involve users sharing and posting images or videos of victims being abused or humiliated offline, or users sharing personal communications such as emails or text messages with a wider audience than was intended by the sender. • FALSE REPORTING – This behaviour involves making false reports to the service provider or reporting other users for a range of behaviours with a view to having the user’s account or website deleted. 7 3. Preventing Cyberbullying 3.1 Home and School together The Minister for Education and Skills has published anti-bullying procedures to be adopted and implemented by all 4,000 primary and post primary schools. The New Procedures and the associated Department Circular 0045/13 are published on that Department’s website. Cyberbullying goes beyond the school environment. The efforts to defeat it cannot therefore be confined to the schools, they must also go on in the wider community, especially in the home. The messages and the responses coming from home and school must be consistent. By working together, home and school can create awareness of the issues and provide clear channels for reporting bullying. They can help to reduce the risks by providing an open culture where bullying can be freely reported and discussed. It is important to create a positive, supportive atmosphere around the topic. All schools and youth groups should have an Anti-Bullying Policy. Everyone in the school or group should be involved in the development of the policy; the policy should be rigorously implemented and reviewed regularly. 8 An Anti-Bullying Policy can be effective in sending a clear message about bullying by setting down: • How seriously the school or club treats cyberbullying • What the organisation is doing to prevent bullying behaviour • What students can do • What parents can do • What teachers and other school staff can do • Who to contact in the event of a problem • How incidents are handled. Anti-bullying policies should also be incorporated in an acceptable use policy (AUP). Further information on developing an AUP for general technology use within schools is available on: http://www.webwise.ie/Teachers/Publications for Schools.list ISPCC’s “Shield My School” Toolkit The ISPCC has developed its new “Shield My School” Self-Evaluation Toolkit for schools.
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